For certain infections, faecal transplants have resulted in remarkable recoveries. Will the same ever be true for people with IBD? It's a condition on the rise in Asia, but why? Follow those trying to find out, and learn how our environments influence IBD in this Outlook.

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Some argue that health-related behaviours, such as obesity, are contagious, but empirical evidence of health contagion remains inconclusive. Here, using a large scale quasi-experiment in a global network of runners, Aral and Nicolaides show that this type of contagion exists in fitness behaviours.

Mountain snowpack in the western United States has declined over the past three decades. Fyfe et al. show that this trend cannot be explained by natural variability alone and show that under a business-as-usual scenario a further loss of up to 60% in mountain snowpack is projected in the coming three decades.

Groups of animals tend to solve tasks better than individuals, but it is unclear whether such socially-derived knowledge accumulates over time. Sasaki and Biro demonstrate that homing pigeon flocks progressively improve the efficiency of their routes by culturally accumulating knowledge across generations.

Beta-arrestins play central roles in the mechanisms regulating GPCR signalling and trafficking. Here the authors identify a selective inhibitor of the interaction between β-arrestin and the β2-adaptin subunit of the clathrin adaptor protein AP-2, which they use to dissect the role of the β-arrestin/β2-adaptin interaction in GPCR signalling.

Ibrutinib has demonstrated high response rates in B-cell lymphomas but a lot of ibrutinib-treated patients relapse with resistance. This study unified TME-mediated de novo and acquired drug resistance through B-cell receptor signalling and PI3K-AKT-mTOR axis and provides a combination therapeutic strategy against B-cell malignancies.

Optical switching of ferromagnets has attracted interest for use in ultrafast spintronics but the physical origin of the effect remains unclear. Here the authors determine the contributions of two proposed mechanisms, the inverse Faraday effect and optical spin-transfer torque.

Lysyl oxidase is able to remodel the extracellular matrix and its expression correlates with poor prognosis. Here the authors show that this protein modulates trapping of the epidermal growth factor receptor at the cell surface, causing persistent signalling activation and tumour progression.

Metoprolol is a selective β1 adrenergic receptor blocker that reduces cardiac infarct size and improves cardiac function. The drug is believed to act on cardiomyocytes; however, here the authors show that metoprolol exerts its beneficial effect on infarcted heart by targeting neutrophils and altering their function and interaction with platelets.

The source of the anisotropic layer (D'' layer) at the bottom of the lower mantle remains unclear. Here, using high pressure and temperature experiments, the authors find that seismic anisotropy observed at the D'' layer is caused by 50% deformation of the minerals post-perovskite and ferropericlase.

Chiral structures are formed in numerous processes including biomineralization of calcium carbonate. Here, the authors demonstrate that the chiral, hierarchically-organized architecture of the calcium carbonate mineral, vaterite, can be controlled simply by the addition of chiral acidic amino acids.

The next level of miniaturization of electronic circuits calls for a connection between current single-molecule and traditional semiconductor processing technologies. Here, the authors show a method to prepare metal/molecule/silicon diodes that present high current rectification ratios exceeding 4,000.

Implantable insulin delivery devices can make a significant difference in the lives of patients although they are limited by the duration of their battery life, often requiring replacement. Here, the authors developed an implantable battery-less insulin delivery device with noninvasive actuation.

Incoherent transport is an important feature of many anisotropic quantum materials but often its origin is not well understood. Here, the authors show that in a layered quantum magnet, incoherence is driven by the interaction of electrons with spin fluctuations after the melting of magnetic order.

The search for brighter emitting materials is essential to the development of OLED devices. Etherington et al. show how the presence of two regioisomers of a donor-acceptor-donor thermally-activated delayed fluorescence molecule affects the device efficiency, with one acting as a triplet quencher.

Stopover sites are crucial to migratory birds, but the influence of this habitat on population dynamics has not been quantified. Here, Studds et al. show that, among ten migratory species, the degree of reliance on disappearing stopover habitat in the Yellow Sea tidal flats predicts the extent of recent population declines.

Pulsatile actomyosin contractility during tissue morphogenesis has been mainly studied in apical domains but less is known about the contribution of the basal domain. Here the authors show differential influence of cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesions in regulating oscillations and tissue elongation.

COP21 led to a global commitment to decarbonization before 2100 to combat climate change, but leaves the timing and scale of mitigation efforts to individual countries. Here, the authors show that global carbon emissions need to peak within a decade to maintain realistic pathways for achieving the Paris Agreement.

No superconductivity could so far be achieved in black phosphorus in its normal orthorhombic form. Here, the authors demonstrate that intercalation with alkali metals makes black phosphorus superconducting with intercalant-independent transition temperature and near-identical superconducting characteristics.

Polar metals such as GeTe could store information using electric domains but the high conductivity screens electric fields, preventing the use of usual domain control techniques. Here, the authors demonstrate that polar domains in GeTe can be manipulated using electrically generated heat shocks.

The sign of the field in plasmonic excitations cannot be accessed by direct measurements. Here Guzzinati et al. overcome this limitation by shaping the wavefunction of an electron beam to match the symmetry of the plasmon’s charge symmetry, offering selective detection of specific plasmon modes.

Aerographite is a highly porous and lightweight carbon material obtained from hollow tubular tetrapod building units. Here, the authors present a comprehensive investigation of tetrapod deformation mechanisms which are at the core of aerographite nanomechanical properties.

The relative roles of external forcing versus internal variability in the Barents Sea winter sea ice decline since 1979 remain unconstrained. Here, the authors show that enhanced Atlantic heat transport into the Barents Sea associated with regional internal variability may have played a leading role.

Physical details of a Josephson junction may drastically modify the properties of supercurrent. Here, the authors observe a colossal enhancement of the critical supercurrent in a Josephson junction subject to a perpendicular magnetic field, indicating topological phase transitions.

Genome assembly for many plant species can be challenging due to large size and high repeat content. Here, the authors use in vitro proximity ligation to assemble the genome of lettuce, revealing a family-specific triplication event and providing a comprehensive reference genome for a member of the Compositae.

Hydrogen bonds are powerful supramolecular motifs, owing to their selective and dynamic nature. Here, the authors build orthogonal hydrogen-bonding sites into a single molecule, allowing it to form diverse hierarchical assemblies and exhibit self-sorting behaviour in response to certain stimuli.

Cation exchange, traditionally driven by ion solvation or thermal activation, is a robust approach for preparing heterogeneous nanostructures but lacks selectivity for preparation of individual nanocrystals. Here, the authors report an electrically driven cation exchange reaction that enables them to fabricate individual nanocrystals with high selectivity.

Professional antigen presenting cells (APC) are the major activator of T cells that then hone to sites of inflammation. Using islet cell grafts, here the authors show that parenchymal cells can present antigen to activate CD8+ T cells at inflammatory sites, coining this a ‘mezzanine response’ distinct from primary and secondary responses associated with professional APCs.

The hydrogen evolution reaction is a complicated process involving liquid-solid-gas three-phase interface behaviour. Here, the authors report the multiscale structural and electronic control of molybdenum disulfide foam and demonstrate its high activity and stability for hydrogen evolution.

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